We try to update maps as often as possible, some maps are third party and we only update the maps when the new information/API is released to us.

Some of the maps in the past have required us to inspect each map tile at every different zoom level for most of the areas GasBuddy covers, in order to to spot and remove inaccuracies or other data errors.

The Map Gas Prices base map is the one that is defective. It was created for GB from an unknown source whenever this feature was developed for the US (it is still not available for Canada) ten years or so ago. There is no evidence that it has been updated since its creation.

The maps used in the MSL are Google Maps, which are kept up to date with new aerial photography and continual editing. Come on GB, convert MGP to Google Maps and ditch your obsolete system.

I know of one omission in the Chicago area on the website maps. The GasBuddy Heat map shows Route 355 ending at route 55. Route 355 should end at route 80, a section of highway that has been open since 2007.

Which map are you referring to? The full site Map Gas Prices map has an unknown source (to we members) and there does not appear to be any method of updating it. The MSL's map is by Google, so you can update anything by either making reports or using Map Maker to actually change the map as mentioned by mwjones.

As far as I know, Google Maps no longer uses outside sources in the US and Canada for mapping data, and depends on both their in-house and volunteer editors to make improvements based off of satellite and other imagery. (They also collect GPS tracks from each of their Street View cars to verify road accuracy)

As one of those volunteer editors, I have been working in the community I live in to try and improve data here, and know there are thousands of others across the US and Canada are working to do the same thing. There is a check and balances system that is to prevent errors, but mistakes do happen.

As far as roadway changes, once an editor submits a change, it can take two to three weeks for it to appear on the live map (depending on how many requests are queued for internal/peer reviews, although some minor changes will go through without review and are live in minutes) and driving directions can take 8-12 weeks to update on route changes.

Points of Interest (Businesses and other non-roadway items) go through as soon as they are peer reviewed, which can happen in a day or two, but sometimes sooner (I have some edits appear on the live map in hours, since I have made enough edits to be considered trustworthy).

As far as I know, Google wholely owns Google Maps. It isn't licensed. And it was just majorly updated a couple of weeks ago. There shouldn't be much that they don't have, though if you go directly to them you can submit corrections if you find anything missing.

The base map used in Map Gas Prices is woefully out of date, with major highways simply not shown. There are probably gas stations that, if properly located, would appear to be not on any road. Since GB pays Google to use their maps in the MSL it is hard to understand why they don’t also use them in MGP instead of trying to limp along on obsolete data.

GB uses two different map systems on it's website. One that they license or have purchased from a map software company (who's name I forget) and the other is google maps.

Depending on what part of the GB website you look at you will see one or the other map. The first one is an older map data set and appears to not be updated very often, if at all. The other one (google maps) is linked to directly from google so however often google updates their map data the 'freshest' map will be displayed on GB, because GB does not cache the google maps.

That being said, there was some discussion on google's product information website as far back as 2009 indicating that since google changed over to a different map data provider the number of map errors had increased all over the US and in other countries as well. Since google map data is sourced from another company, correcting errors relies on others reporting the problems to the map data company, not google, and then google receiving those updates and applying it to their maps. Because of this, google map data can be out of date ranging from weeks to years.

All GB gas station data is contained in the Master Station List which is entirely separate from the map data. Since that list is maintained entirely by volunteer effort of the GB members it is only as good as the time and effort members put into keeping it up to date.

The Master Station List is probably not close to a complete list of all gas stations in the US, let alone other countries and US territories.